Los Lonely Boys, Dirty Dozen Brass band, Jr. Brown and Guy Forsyth on the big stage.
03/22/2004
The beginning of the day was supposed to be easy; the “kid friendly” bands took the stage early in the day, from noon until 3:45. Thank goodness they were no problems at all. I had other issues to deal with. When I arrived at the stage there was a huge amount of equipment to shoot a DVD for Los Lonely Boys.
That wasn’t on my one sheet for the stage, I had no prior warning that this circus was going to be in town. A circus it was, L.A folks on the DVD crew, to many clowns and no car to take them away in. The communication between Los Lonely Boys and the stage crew as not quite up to par. Brian, the stage manager did a fabulous job with all the commotion. We ended up with 4 different folks claiming to be the bands manager. I know who their manager is, I have met him a few times and I have watched him work this band for the last 4 ½ years. He is from Austin, he is quite nice, quite handsome and I have to admit I have had a crush on him for the past few years. After the day ended, I don’t know if K.W. will ever talk to me again. We had a few contentious words through out the day but, I think we “kissed and made up” by the end of the night.
I just love Guy Forsyth, he and the band were no problems at all. His folks showed up on time, there were no issues and his show went off with out a hitch. I did notice that M. form Or Records did enjoy his show. I wish he had seen a club show with Guy, but at least he got to see him.
M. from Or stole one of my volunteers yesterday. I guess stole is a bit too strong a word to use, he asked if she could go to a private party with him. Patti had been working hard with me the last few days and I thought it would be a nice treat for her to get to go for an hour. About two hours later, M. showed back up at the stage and I didn’t see Patti. I went after him like a mom, “where the hell is my girl?” She had gotten back; I just hadn’t seen her yet. Oops.
Grupo Fantasma and Junior Brown and The Dirty Dozen Brass band all had good sets. The crowd kept growing as the night progressed there were no issues that I was made aware of. My sponsors for the stage were quite happy, K-eye television, Toyota, Sirius, HEB and the American Spirits folks.
Los Lonely boys had tons of folks show up claiming to be with the band. There were access issues all afternoon long. There were unscheduled meet and greets, unscheduled press gatherings and other issues as the night progressed. The Dirty Dozen Brass band was on stage, there set was 15 minuets from ending when all hell broke loose. It was now 7:20 p.m. The DVD folks had asked about the stage banner earlier in the day, they wanted it dropped for the shoot. The issue had been discussed and decided on at around 2:00 p.m. The banner was going to stay up. I was in on that decision and I had informed my SXSW boss about it so he was aware when he got to the venue.
The band was refusing to go on stage. I should say the management was refusing to put the band on stage, I don’t think the band was even aware of what was transpiring. The DVD crew was having a fit about the banner. The crowd had maxed out the Town Lake Stage, there were about 22-23 thousand folks waiting to see Los Lonely Boys, it was a mess. There were some heated exchanges going on between Brian, the stage manager, the real band management and a bunch of the SXSW staff. I was dealing with plan B and was thinking we might just have a riot. 22,000 fans disappointed was not going to be a pretty site. Some how it all got resolved, the band did end up going on stage, a bit late but they had a fabulous show. I can tell you it was a bit stressful in the back of the house, it was the first time I was caught off guard.
After the band went on stage, I had to deal with disappointed VIP’s. There was not enough room for all the backstage folks to see the show. The VIP seating area on the side of the stage was full. We had to shut access to that part of the stage down; we were concerned about the weight load. There were about 30 VIP’s that couldn’t see the band. The crowd was too tight to send them out front to watch.
All in all, it was a circus, just a 3 ring circus back stage all night long. This was supposed to be my easy day.
I was wired by the time the crowd cleared. My responsibilities were over and I decided to head over to Stubbs to see a few sets their. I was supposed to drop a package off at one of the hotels on my way over, but unfortunately I had left that in my car and had to do my delivery around 3:00 a.m. when I was done for the night. It was a long night and a short time until morning.
I was up early on Sunday morning, Brett had to catch a flight. I headed over to the Whole Life Expo after the airport run and then to the SXSW softball game. I couldn’t stay awake at the softball game so I left early and I managed to catch the last 100 laps of the NASCAR race. Robby ended up 4th. He had a great car yesterday, the pit crew did a fabulous job and he moved up 8 places in the points race. He is still listed as 24th in points but I think this win will change the momentum for the rest of the season. It is still early on and I think they can dig themselves out of the DNF’s from the first few races of the season.
Today: I have to get my tooth fixed, it broke on Friday morning during a panel I was attending and I didn’t have time to deal with it this weekend. I am headed into the office tonight. It is back to my little normal Austin life after 11 days of SXSW festivals.
